ART: Newark: All That Glitters

From installations to large graphic paintings, Newark, New Jersey is the site of an ambitious group show that is taking place in the normally staid confines of Gateway Center, a complex of offices next to Newark Penn Station.

The show, “All That Glitters,” is “about abundance, luxury and decadence, flirtations with vulgarity, and the ache for exaltation,” according to a press release on the exhibit. Living up to the description, the art sprawls over a former cubicle farm and glams up the white and beige walls.

Noteworthy standouts: the bead encrusted shoes by artist Raul de Nieves, who has had his work worn by Lady Gaga. The sculpture of a white horse covered in silky braids of hair by Shoplifter. Jessica Bowman’s photograph of a blonde glamourpuss rocking a tiara and a gold tank top. Ashli Sisk’s paintings of white tigers that look like they escaped from a Lisa Frank binder. Katherine Bernhardt’s beautiful, messy figurative paintings of women.

Rebecca Jampol and Athena Barat, both fixtures of the Newark art scene, curated the show as part of the Gateway Project, “a series of pop up art exhibitions adjacent to Newark Pennsylvania Station,” according to the show press release. Jampol owns art organization Solo(s) Project House, a gallery and studio space in downtown Newark. Barat is the creative director of the Barat Foundation, a non-profit arts organization also based in Newark.